Citizen Hughes - Michael Drosnin [161]
“I am certain that one submission back to me of the revised and shortened lists I have proposed will be sufficient,” he once more assured Maheu. “I am hoping to give you a green lite within an hour after you re-submit the lists.
“Re the opening date, etc., I urge you count the number after the revisions. It looks to me as tho the number, in total, after the revisions I have requested, will be small enough to permit one event only, which I strongly recommend .”
Hughes’s demand for yet another revised guest list came just after midnight, three days before the still tentative date of the grand Landmark party. He had lopped so many names off the list that the big gala could now fit comfortably in the hotel’s constantly malfunctioning elevator. He had not yet approved a single invitation. And he had stubbornly kept the opening date open.
Maheu finally lost control.
“Howard,” he exploded, “we don’t have a revised guest list because, as of right now, we don’t know whether we’re going to have one group or two groups—or any group. If we don’t have any invitees at all, then it becomes moot to furnish a guest list.
“I have given you the schedule of events about ten times now,” he raved at Hughes, who all along had been peppering him with questions about details of the still unscheduled party, especially about food for the still uninvited guests, which he refused to allow Maheu to order.
“Unfortunately, I have been so busy with this and many other of your problems, that I have no idea about the menu, except that, as I indicated to you in a previous memorandum, it will cost us about $10 per head to feed the beasts.
“At this point,” Maheu concluded, “I couldn’t care less whether we have an affair on the 30th, on the 1st, or whether we ever open up the damned joint. My recommendation to you, Howard, seriously, is that we put this whole caper aside, not take advantage of the fact that we can make the International look foolish, let them make us look foolish instead, and wait until you are satisfied that you have capable people around you to have your opening, at which time I wish you the greatest success.”
Hughes absorbed the diatribe with uncharacteristic calm. Having waited so patiently for Maheu to bite, he did not want to try to hook him too soon. Also, Hughes was himself hooked on the guest list. He was not willing to be diverted. Not quite yet.
“Bob, I dont think I have been unreasonable about this invitation list,” he wrote, replying with elaborate patience to his aide’s intemperate outburst.
“I honestly feel, Bob, that if I can bear to devote the time to go through this list, you should be willing likewise to do so.
“I am sure there will be another occasion like this some time, and if this list can be refined and analyzed to the end of the line, all this work will be done and not necessary to be repeated.”
With that, Hughes was off again, refining and analyzing with undiminished zeal, urging Maheu to go the last mile, not for the sake of this party alone, but for the Eternal List.
“Please consider the remaining names,” he continued. “I would appreciate the facts supporting invitations of these people, and I would also appreciate the names and qualifications of any other people you think should be added in the event these names are returned to the list.
“In other words, if these real estate men and contractors are restored, aren’t there other people in the same line of work whom, in all propriety, should be included?
“Re Morrie Friedman, please tell me the story on him.
“Also, Bob, I am awaiting a list of other auto dealers who perhaps should be included, in view of the fact that I have returned Ackerman to the list.”
Ackerman. The first name on Maheu’s first list. The one that had stopped Hughes right off. Ackerman had finally made it back onto the list. But the larger issue raised by his inclusion—what to do about the rest of the automobile dealers—still preoccupied the would-be host.
It remained a troubling inconsistency. Hughes, however, had promised Maheu a green light